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1.5 tonnes of waste in 4 hours - Coca‑Cola Hungary employees collected waste at the Kisköre Dam on the River Tisza

Blooming trees, tranquil waters and an extremely rich fauna – this characterises the River Tisza and its artificial lake, Lake Tisza. The view is exceptional but now, as a result of the floods of the last few weeks, it is defaced by a field of waste sometimes 3 metres thick jammed at the Kisköre Dam covering an area of 17 thousand square metres.

Floods usually wash down a significant amount of driftwood, organic material and communal waste on the Tisza every year and the Kisköre Dam is the first facility to stop the flood of garbage thus preventing the lower section of the river from getting polluted.

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Zero Waste Tisza

In order to manage the emergency effectively, the water management authority, a civic organisation and an industry player joined forces in this July. The Directorate General of Water Management plans to develop the load area at the Kisköre Dam, the civic conservationist program Plastic Cup participates in the sorting and recycling of the waste collected.

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The Coca‑Cola Foundation – the global foundation of Coca‑Cola – provides financial support within the framework of Zero Waste Tisza project in order to help remedy the situation. The collaboration of the three parties aims to maintain a continuous emergency management, recycle the waste collected and clean the river in an increasing extent.

A company volunteer day at the River Tisza

Employees of Coca‑Cola Hungary actively contributed to the implementation and the success of the project. Nearly 70 enthusiastic employees participated in the cleaning of the Kisköre section of the river on the 26th of July 2019. On this day, they collected the mostly plastic waste stuck in the reeds and floating on the surface of the water into bags together with volunteers of Plastic Cup. The bags full of waste were collected by the PETényi “waste eater boat” the peculiarity of which being that it hovers on many plastic bottles formerly removed from Tisza. Hard work could be judged by the numbers at the end of the day as nearly 1.5 tonnes of waste were gauged. This will soon be sorted out properly and recycled.